LIHU‘E — From behind the wheel, Bill Doherty looks like just another Kaua‘i cabbie. But the part-time taxi driver has a wealth of management experience and says he has witnessed first-hand apparent ineptitude across the state Department of Transportation leadership
LIHU‘E — From behind the wheel, Bill Doherty looks like just
another Kaua‘i cabbie. But the part-time taxi driver has a wealth
of management experience and says he has witnessed first-hand
apparent ineptitude across the state Department of Transportation
leadership ranks at Lihu‘e Airport.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories on operational, management and other issues at Lihu‘e Airport.
LIHU‘E — From behind the wheel, Bill Doherty looks like just another Kaua‘i cabbie.
But the part-time taxi driver has a wealth of management experience and says he has witnessed first-hand apparent ineptitude across the state Department of Transportation leadership ranks at Lihu‘e Airport.
“There have been problems out there for so long. I’m just amazed that anything gets done,” he said.
Doherty, a pilot, has management experience at Pan American World Airlines and retired as vice president and controller of a company that does high-rise construction projects in New York City.
“They just interpret things different every day,” he said of Lihu‘e Airport management.
George “Manu” Crabbe III, DOT Airports Division Kaua‘i airports district manager, referred a call seeking comment to Tammy Mori, DOT spokeswoman.
Doherty said an airport business-services supervisor penned a hand-written note admitting to stealing around $15,000 soon after a meeting between himself, Crabbe and Tim Skinner, airport assistant manager.
“They’re losing money because their cash controls are terrible,” said Doherty, who as manager of audits and controls at Pan Am conducted cash audits of employees.
“They just don’t get it. They really, really don’t,” he said. “It’s a function, too, of airport management, because if management had been doing its job they would have found out earlier” about the alleged embezzlement.
Brennon Morioka, DOT director, said internal and state Attorney General investigations are going on into many of the allegations, and if disciplinary action is warranted against Crabbe or Skinner it will be meted out.
State senator gets involved
Problems at Lihu‘e Airport including the alleged embezzlement have been brought to the attention of state Senate Vice President Donna Mercado Kim, D-Moanalua-‘Aiea-Kalihi Valley-Halawa Valley, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Kim, in the midst of the ongoing investigation into alleged management problems at Lihu‘e Airport, pointed to a few examples of apparent waste of taxpayer money.
“It’s very frustrating. It’s very disturbing,” Kim said in an interview Tuesday. “And it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”
She said DOT management in Honolulu is not moving fast enough to rectify concerns.
Morioka told Kim’s committee in late August that coaches including Sidney Hayakawa, DOT administrative services officer, are planning on offering management advice to managers at Lihu‘e Airport. But Kim said she remains mystified that the “coaching” has done nothing to solve problems at the facility.
Hayakawa has been going to Lihu‘e Airport for two years, she said.
“Why are they not getting to the heart of the problem instead of Band-Aiding it?” Kim asked.
Morioka said in an interview Wednesday that while DOT Honolulu management officials have been traveling to Lihu‘e over the last several years regarding personnel issues, it is only more recently that they have been coming to the island and other state airports to coach airport management, operations and maintenance workers, providing management and leadership training to help them do their jobs more effectively.
In charge of the Senate money committee, Kim said she wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t investigate the claims of mismanagement that she has been able to verify and that have cost taxpayers thousands if not millions of dollars.
It’s a travesty to have to spend so much state time and money to fly people from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i to try to straighten out problems at Lihu‘e Airport, she said.
“There are problems at other airports, but not to this degree,” Kim said in terms of embezzlement, fines levied by the federal Transportation Security Administration, issues about whether the state overpaid for acreage acquired from Grove Farm for expansion of the airport heliport, and the strange case of an airport operations supervisor who allegedly walked off the job over disgust with airport management, failed to tell anyone, continued to collect pay and was later allowed to return to work with full back pay.
Regarding the alleged embezzlement, Kim has learned other airports handle cash in the same way as Lihu‘e Airport, which she called “an accident waiting to happen.”
Morioka said his department has been looking at internal controls and protocols, and offering additional training to those handling money and their supervisors, empowering supervisors with tools and training to prevent a recurrence of the Lihu‘e Airport alleged embezzlement.
The DOT is one of the largest departments in state government with 2,500 employees, he said.
“At the end of the day we do expect all our employees to do what’s right,” and be accountable for their actions, said Morioka. He added that he welcomes the feedback from the public and Kim, takes such feedback seriously, and also takes seriously the need to follow up so that problems won’t happen again.
Signed embezzlement confession
Kim said the woman admitted to embezzlement in early July in a hand-written letter, but Kim remains incredulous that the woman was only terminated Aug. 26, and remained on paid leave until then.
The woman, whose name is known to The Garden Island but who has not been arrested or charged with any crime, could not be reached for comment. A call seeking comment left at her parents’ home was not returned Wednesday.
Morioka said during the earlier committee hearing the woman was put on paid leave because she needed to be available for follow-up interviews by investigators.
“The person who has been embezzling shouldn’t have been handling money” if Crabbe, who hired her and had worked with the woman at Aloha Airlines earlier, had investigated her track record of personal money problems, Kim said.
She said it also appears personnel in the state Department of the Attorney General are “dragging their feet” on what appears to Kim to be an open-and-shut case with a signed confession.
Christopher Young, administrator of the AG’s Criminal Justice Division, said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation.
“How cut and dried if we have a hand-written confession?” Kim asked.
Morioka at the committee hearing said even those who have confessed still have rights to due process.
On Wednesday Morioka said he is unable to comment much on either ongoing internal or AG investigations concerning Lihu‘e Airport employees, but did say his department is working with the AG’s office to explore “avenues available to recoup” the money allegedly stolen.
Though he hasn’t personally seen the confession letter, he thinks one exists and is probably in the AG’s possession.
The DOT is working on establishing mechanisms to prevent both future embezzlement and the situation of a supervisor walking off the job and continuing to be paid while not working, Morioka said.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement in the separate case involving a supervisor who walked off the job but was allowed to return to work, Morioka said he returned with no accrued vacation leave but won’t be made to pay back wages he was paid while he was not working.
Asked if disciplinary actions will be taken against either Crabbe or Skinner, he said investigations are underway and “we will take appropriate actions if necessary.”
Kim said she continues to have feelings of “frustration and disappointment” over the continuing “absurdities.”
“What does it say about the Kaua‘i management? It seems to be the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
Doherty is even more blunt: Crabbe is “not doing his job,” and those doing business at the airport “are terrified of airport management.”
“They’re afraid of retaliation,” said Kim.
After the last Ways and Means Committee meeting, Kim has been busy following up on other matters and waiting for DOT responses to questions unanswered at the last hearing, she said.
“I’m responding to the complaints from employees and citizens. It appears that I will have a follow-up hearing,” but a date has not yet been determined, she said.
